Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that occurs in the first three years of life, lasts a lifetime and for which there is no definitive treatment. Its main characteristic is a disorder of communication and social interaction and stereotyped behaviors that affect all aspects of development and involve many related disorders such as mental retardation, lack of sensory integration, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, epilepsy and digestive problems.
For this reason, it is not only necessary to carry out evaluations in psychological aspects, but it is also necessary and required to carry out interventions in the field of rehabilitation.
This disorder does not depend on any economic, social, ethnic or racial group, people with autism live all over the country and in all areas of Tehran, and the prevalence rate is 1 in 100 according to the latest statistics of the Welfare Organization and the Ministry of Health in Iran. According to the report of the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence rate is 1 in 36, which indicates an increase in the frequency of this disorder.
the ” Iran Autism Association ” operates with 23 representative offices in the country and is the only national association with a national license from the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Treatment and Medical Education and has been awarded the organization’s international consultant status with the slogan “Autism, my other world”.
The main mission of the association is to raise community awareness, educate and empower parents and people with autism spectrum disorders and therapists who require and receive special support. The association strives through public awareness, demanding, active participation of people, effective and continuous presence in the atmosphere of government organizations and bodies by increasing national and international cooperation of institutions, as supporters of the association, to play an influential role in reducing the burden of social, economic and cultural damage. have this disorder. To date, more than 8000 registry files are available in Iran Autism Association.
In this context, Iran Autism Association has organized conferences under the title 20 + 3 with the two objectives of presenting reports and making demands to the main stakeholders (families and people with autism, community members and officials). After these conferences, three organizations are directly related to autism (the country’s Welfare Organization, the country’s Organization for Exceptional Education and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education) and 20 organizations are indirectly related.
The Iran Autism Association held the third conference in 2024 which the first and second was Respectively in 2016 and 2023. The focus of this year’s conference was on the challenges of adults with autism and family mental health, which were discussed in the program.
In the second part of the conference, addressing the demands of families and the challenges they face, the association took several measures to gather the demands of families by creating a family panel with the presence of five dear families representing all families and people with autism across the country who have challenges related to girls. Autistic adults, single parents, autistic siblings, parents with multiple autistic children.
Parents who have an adult son with autism and a family who spoke on behalf of families under the age of seven on the sidelines of the ceremony, in the form of a letter to the authorities, the families delivered about 170 people to the association to share their challenges and problems with the officials, the main challenges they announced can be seen in the form of the following keywords, which are the cost of rehabilitation, employment and livelihood discussion. There are three main needs and challenges of the families.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consIn another part of the program, the families wrote their wishes by hand on the wish banner, which you can see belowectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
During the program, 5 families, each representing a group of families with autistic children and facing particular challenges, shared their problems with Audiences
ic@irautism.org
No.8, Mojahed Kabir Street, East Laleh Boulevard, South Sattari Highway, Tehran, Iran.